NUMERICAL-SIMULATION OF ABLATIVE RAYLEIGH-TAYLOR INSTABILITY

Numerical simulations over a wide range of parameters of the linear stability of an ablating laser-produced plasma show a linear decrease in the growth rate with increasing ablation velocity. Simulations in planar and spherical geometries, with red and blue laser light, at high and low intensities, and at high and low accelerations, all seem to nearly follow a consistent law upsilon = 0.9 square-root kg - 3kv(a), when v(a) is defined as the mass ablation rate divided by the peak density, in agreement with the eigenvalue analysis of Takabe and co-workers.